They singled out former directors Richard Adam, Richard Howson and Philip Green for particular scrutiny, saying the men had grown the firm through ill-judged acquisitions while hiding Carillion’s financial problems from shareholders.

They added that even as the company publicly began to unravel, the board was “concerned with increasing and protecting generous executive bonuses”.

“Long term obligations, such as adequately funding Carillion’s pension schemes, were treated with contempt,” they said.

But a KPMG spokesman said it had conducted its audits of Carillion “appropriately”, and Ernst & Young said it was “disappointed that despite all efforts the business was not rescued”.

Deloitte said it was “disappointed” with committees’ conclusions while PwC said it was helping save “thousands of jobs” as official receiver.

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Carillion delivered “swathes” of public services, MPs said

Michael Izza, chief executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, told the Today programme the report felt like a watershed moment for the industry.

“It gives us an opportunity to think again about what we need to do to fix this. Because if we don’t fix this I don’t think we’re going to have a profession in 20 years time.”

What are regulators and the government accused of?

The MPs also accused regulators of being too “passive” in tackling Carillion’s problems, and said government failures had made the collapse of the outsourcing firm “if not inevitable, then at least a distinct possibility”.

They said contractors that handled “swathes” of public services needed to be closely monitored

But they said the government had failed to spot the risks because of its “semi-professional part-time” system of oversight.

Frank Field, chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said: “Government urgently needs to come to Parliament with radical reforms to our creaking system of corporate accountability.”

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said it had recently announced measures to support government suppliers, including strengthening its commitment to “protecting staff, businesses and small suppliers from irresponsible directors”.

It said it would “respond fully” to the committees’ report in due course.